Let’s face it, it’s a lot easier thinking about how best to serve the sick and poor and elderly if you don’t have to worry about driving or taxes.

Then again, maybe it’s better to hire people who actually have to think about the realities of daily life if they’re going to do such things as run the nation’s Health and Human Services department, an immense bureaucracy with a budget of $29.5 billion (and those are pre-stimulus dollars.)

HHS runs a long and serious roster of public services, from Medicaid and Medicare to programs that target the prevention of diseases, child abuse, food and drug safety and even early childhood “Head-Start” education.

We ought to trust that whoever runs such an agency is completely above board.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.